The Risks of Following Through With a Trick Play
by mysterySanity
Summary: When Sena starts to notice just how many suitors he has, Mamori arranges for Hiruma to act as a buffer- and Sena's boyfriend.
1. Prologue

The door to the Deimon High American Football Club slams open. Mamori stands in the doorway, furiously clenching and unclenching her fists. Yoichi blinks once in her direction before returning to his laptop. If the fucking manager has something to say, he'll consider listening, until then he had bigger fish to fry.

"Hiruma-san, please be Sena's boyfriend." Mamori finally blurts out, in a fury of barely discernable babble and grimacing. It seems like it's physically paining her to ask this. If Yoichi was anyone besides himself, he would've choked on his own spit. As it was, he made a living off of being unreadable and simply glances up, raising an eyebrow.

"Fucking manager, if you're on drugs I'm not blackmailing you out of rehab." He says. Mamori's flushes red with anger, but stands her ground. She's serious, Yoichi realizes, with no small degree of shock.

"I don't want to ask this of anyone, but right now, you're the best choice I have." Mamori says solemnly. Yoichi sets the laptop aside and seats himself at one end of a long table. Mamori copies him, sitting at the other end and primly lacing her fingers together.

"Sena's swamped right now." Mamori finally continues. "He's not the smartest book-wise, but he's always been good with people and he's starting to notice the way people look at him. It wouldn't be so bad but there are a lot of people, most of them either bigger than him, incredibly dangerous or both. A few of them I doubt would accept no at any point in time." Mamori swallows nervously, staring at her hands. "Sena can't handle this. I know I've said that a lot, but this time I'm positive." Mamori looks up again, her eyes blazing. Yoichi, listening neutrally, is beginning to see the somewhat convoluted reasoning behind Mamori's request. "He needs time to decide who he wants to be with, if he even wants to be with anyone. As it is, he's so stressed he can't even sleep, let alone think."

"So why ask me? The linebacker from Ojo, or the other midget are clearly better choices." Yoichi says dismissively, though he's actually rather curious why the fucking manager did pick him. It's not everyday she asks for something, doesn't demand or tell but asks, knowing full well he could blackmail her with any request. Mamori looks at him seriously, if anyone still believed he had a soul, she would've been looking straight into it.

"I trust you." She says after a long pause. "I trust if Sena develops feelings for you during this pretense, you won't abuse them. I trust you won't force him into anything he hasn't explicitly given you permission for. You were, and are, the best choice. You can keep his suitors at bay and let him think. Besides which you've shown fewer signs than any of the other options of romantic interest in Sena. And this way, I'll be close enough to watch." Mamori pauses, to let her words really sink in, before adding "and because I'll owe you one. I know you'll respect that, and won't do anything towards Sena to make me retract my end of the bargain."

It's a tempting offer, Yoichi isn't afraid to acknowledge this is the best he's been painted since he was in grade school. But he's not an idiot, and he refuses to walk blindly into any situation. "Three questions." He says, holding up three fingers. "One, you say relationship- tell me exactly what you are expecting from this farce. Two, there are obviously stipulations on the 'one' you owe me, you aren't an idiot, so explain those as well." Yoichi goes silent, curling his fingers in on themselves and reclining back in his chair.

Mamori cocks her head to the side. "That's only two questions." She points out, sounding much more relieved than she had entering the club room.

"I'm saving the third." Yoichi replies, with a patented Cheshire grin. Mamori wrinkles her nose, but doesn't object again.

"One, I expect you to keep him a safe distance from the people he is aware have feelings for him. I expect you to grant him a time out, if you would, a respite during which he can think through his feelings. Anything beyond that is entirely up to Sena and will have to be discussed with him." Mamori semi-mockingly raises a finger, and then another. "Two, if Sena would cry if it were suggested to him, I can't do it." Mamori says, and then nods, satisfied.

"That is a very broad ranger, fucking manager. Is there anything the damn shrimp doesn't cry at?" Yoichi scoffs, but Mamori's answer won't change, and they both know it.

"Do we have a deal or not?" Mamori asks, head held high.

"Fine. When the fucking shrimp is ready to talk, I'll be here." Yoichi responds, waving Mamori off. She leaves quietly and Yoichi snorts, shaking his head. He'd thought today was going to be boring.


	2. Chapter 1

"Uh… I… Uh… H-Hiruma-san?" Sena squeaks. Yoichi, feeling a very severe case of déjà vu, glances up. Sena is fidgeting in the doorway, looking around nervously, like he's never been in the American Football club room before. Yoichi is half-expecting and deeply hoping the Mamori will appear out of thin air to soothe Sena, but it seems she chose today to allow Sena his independence and left Yoichi to clean up the mess. Yoichi is starting to have doubts about any kind of favor being worth comforting the shrimp.

If any of this transfers onto the field and his running back does anything short of his very best, Yoichi is going to be pissed. But then again, he sees the way the oldest Huh Huh brother looks at Sena when he thinks Sena can't see, and the shrimp never avoids a run because Juumonji is there, so Yoichi figures Sena is probably capable of shoving unease deep, deep down on the field. As he should be.

"Che." Yoichi sighs finally, setting his laptop down. He has a bad feeling this morning is going to echo yesterday afternoon and he will not be allowed to work and talk. Oddly enough setting the laptop aside does nothing to alleviate the shrimp's nerves, in fact Sena looks like he's deeply regretting his entire life and about to dash the 4.1 straight out of Deimon. "Did the fucking manager explain the situation?" Yoichi asks, pinning Sena in place with a glare.

"Mamori-neechan, she said…" Sena trails off, looking doubtful and terrified in equal measures. He's fiddling with bottom of his shirt and Yoichi is having terrible flashbacks to the beginning of the year when all he wanted to do was bash the shrimp's head against the floor until he paid attention and stopped stuttering and maybe even grew a backbone, though that seemed extraordinarily unlikely back then. Even Yoichi could be wrong sometimes. Yoichi figures this is going to be like pulling teeth anyway it happens, so he might as well cut the chit-chat and the waiting for Sena to stop being a moron and get straight to the heart of the shrimp's fear.

"You are in need of someone to scare off suitors. I get a free favor from the manager." Yoichi looks Sena straight in the eyes. "That's it." He says seriously. Sena's brow furrows and then smoothes out. This is going to take so much longer than Yoichi thought and he takes a moment to mourn all the blackmail he's probably missing out on right now due to this conversation.

"That's all?" Sena asks, and really, Yoichi was going to have to get himself a therapist license by the end of this conversation. He does hate to repeat himself but what was he on when he made that agreement? There wasn't even a specified time limit. Yoichi was going to end up killing himself, or Sena, by the end of this charade, he was sure.

"That's all. Are your ears broken, fucking shrimp?" Yoichi responds, baring his teeth. Sena flushes an embarrassed red, and Yoichi is a little surprised not to see any fear accompany the flush. He must be loosing his touch, too many guns, and too few subtle manipulations. He would be fixing that shortly. After the contract with Mamori expired, she'd probably try to have him arrested if he blackmailed Sena while in a 'relationship'. "You're in charge here, that's been made abundantly clear." Yoichi relents, trying for pacifying and ending up somewhere in the 'vaguely aggressive, but not enough to kill a small child' region. It was, he figures, close enough. "Make the best of a bad situation and make your decision quickly." Yoichi finishes.

"It's not that bad of a situation." Sena mumbles placatingly, while blatantly ignoring the second part of Yoichi's statement. Then he freezes, draws his shoulders comfortingly up to his ears, and scrutinizes Yoichi's face. When he sees, or rather, Yoichi expects, doesn't see, what he's looking for, Sena's shoulders drop back down in a relaxed state and Sena smiles gently.

"Get dressed and on the field shrimp. Practice starts in 15 minutes." Yoichi says, in lieu of an actual response. He picks his laptop back up to get some actual work done for once and as a very clear indicator that this conversation is over. Sena, however, is not very good at subtleties and slowly, carefully tiptoes his way into the club until he's standing in front of Yoichi, half hidden by the laptop screen. He bites his lip again, which Yoichi thinks is a terrible habit and he has to restrain himself a little from dragging his guns out from the secret seat installed in the window he likes to sit in. His favorite thing about the old man was that he asked no questions and had friends in the furnishing business who asked no questions.

"Thank you Hiruma-san." Sena says, pausing a little like he was going to say something else, but instead he smiles again and scampers off to actually do as he was told. Yoichi is not sure he's going to be able to put of with the damn shrimp being grateful for any period of time. Everything he does is sickeningly sincere and Yoichi is definitely neither of those things. Well, he considers, he is probably sickening, and proud of it. In any case he hopes Sena makes up his mind very soon. While he hasn't though, they're going to have to have a conversation that goes 'people don't refer to their significant others by their last names'. Sena will make it so much more annoying and long-lasting than it really has to be, of this Yoichi is sure.

Practice, for once, goes relatively smoothly. Yoichi chases the shrimp squad around, guns blazing, until they reach their top speeds and sustain it, which takes less time than it normally does. He sets Cerberus to watch over them, hungrily, but Yoichi doesn't expect he'll be needed today. Yoichi leaves the linemen to Kurita, he's too soft, but they will get better little by little with him in charge, argues briefly with Mamori about plays and even gets to train a little himself.

About halfway through practice he introduces a new technique, based on the weaknesses of their rag-tag team, because eventually the weaknesses will be exploited. He's surprised it hasn't been already, but then again people seem remarkably set on believing that the Devilbats have had extraordinary luck all season, and aren't worth scouting. All in all it would be a brilliant practice that Yoichi could feel proud of if he didn't keep noticing little behaviors he hadn't before Mamori stormed into the club yesterday. The way Juumonji smiles a little too long at Sena, even when he is looking now, and how Taki spins just that much more extravagantly when Sena is looking his way. Even the monkey behaves differently around Sena. What he notices most is how Sena's smile tightens every time a behavior that could be seen as flirting occurs, how his eyes flick just a little bit between Yoichi and Mamori. Mamori glares knives at Yoichi across the field, so he figures he'd best hold up his end of the bargain. He questions why Mamori couldn't have done this herself, but decides not to think too far into it. The manager's mind is a terrifying place, and that's coming from Yoichi, who has actually been called a demon almost every day since he was 5.

"Shrimp, come here." Yoichi calls, and Sena trots over, staring with some amount of trust and a great amount of relief up at Yoichi. It's a stupid change from this morning, a couple sentences and a lack of emotional response to what Sena says apparently does wonders for improving team relationships. Yoichi is actually kind of angry, if this is what Sena's been doing before people show interest in him, no wonder so many people are lining up to try their chances. It's his stupid optimism and trust, like Yoichi couldn't just be hiding his feelings a little deeper- Yoichi cuts off his thoughts there. He's not going to talk himself into a relationship with Sena while they are supposed to be playing at a fake relationship. They have less than nothing in common and it would never last. Yoichi minutely shakes his head to banish the thoughts, before focusing back on Sena and his agreement with Mamori.

"Yes Hiruma-san?" Sena asks, still panting slightly from the practice. Yoichi glances briefly at a clock hanging on a nearby wall. (Some people had raised concerns about clocks hanging outside looking tacky but Yoichi had smiled and said that the American Football Club needed to know what time it was always and these esteemed gathering of people wouldn't want to make them late to class now would they, and suddenly it hadn't been a problem anymore.) Practice was almost over, there was about a minute and a half until it was time to change clothes and run to class, which meant Yoichi had just enough time to start phase 1 of his plan to get this over as fast as humanly possible, and with Sena it should go about twice as fast.

"Here." Yoichi dumps a towel on Sena's head. Sena struggles with it for a couple seconds, before it slips backwards resting on his fluffy abomination of hair and his face pops out, looking confused. The whole practice field has gone miraculously silent. Juumonji in particular, Yoichi notes, looks ready to murder him. Yoichi smirks. "Kekeke." He laughs, rubbing the towel into Sena's hair. Yoichi then proceeds to prop an elbow up on Sena's head and lean in close to his face. Sena looks very nervous, but Yoichi just raises an eyebrow and grins until Sena manages an uneasy smile back at him. Good enough. Yoichi knows, from the angle the rest of the team is standing, exactly what just appeared to happen, and figures that fulfills his boyfriend duties for the day. Yoichi straightens back up, minutely separates himself from Sena.

"Ya-ha! Practice is over, hit the showers." Yoichi yells, firing a gun in the air, and Sena darts out, fast enough that Yoichi almost feels insulted. This farce was never going to work if Sena couldn't step up his acting skills and pretend not to hate the idea of a relationship. As it was, a person would have to be a complete monkey to not realize- Yoichi turned very slowly, already regretting his mental word choice. Sure enough, there stands Monta, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Yoichi looks at him with a politely questioning expression. Monta takes two uneasy steps back and Yoichi can't help but grin madly.

"As-" Monta looks at Yoichi suspiciously, waiting for the polite look to come back so he can high-tail it out of there. Yoichi, though, despite how fun it is to torture Monta's tiny brain, has decided this probably has something to do with Sena and can be used to springboard the idea that they are dating, and so is good and doesn't make any faces. He's going to have to go on such a blackmail spree when he is done pretending to be Sena's boyfriend, he feels like an upstanding citizen and it is probably the grossest feeling he's ever been faced with.

"As Sena's best friend, I demand to know what is going on." Monta finally announces after it becomes clear that Yoichi is done terrorizing him. Monta is brandishing a finger, pointed vaguely at Yoichi but with all the random flailing it's a little hard to tell. "You were MAX hanging all over him at practice." No monkey, it was just the last minute of practice, Yoichi wants to say so badly, but instead he unloads a round of handgun shells at Monta's feet. Monta backs up quite a bit more, but he's still glaring at Yoichi. So, Yoichi figures, it's the perfect time to enter phase 2 of the farce for which he's really beginning to suspect is not going to be worth 'a favor'.

"Don't you know? We're fucking boyfriends." Yoichi says, grinning widely. The look on Monta's face actually convinced him a little that everything was going to be worthwhile. He regretted deeply making a decision not to bring his camera with him while he was practicing because that look would warm the cackles of his heart until the day he died.

"Sena!" The monkey screams, running into the clubhouse. "Sena, say it's MAX untrue!" Yoichi turns to raise an eyebrow at the rest of the team, none of whom have moved at all yet. Then he grins a Cheshire grin and unleashes a rain of bullets at their feet. As he chases them into the clubhouse he laughs a little. Juumonji is definitely going to strain something glaring as hard as he is.

**Hey, this actually got a response which was both surprising and nice. Anyway just so everyone is clear and no one is confused or let down, this is going to be a Hiruma/Sena fanfiction, regardless of what other pairings may pop up. Sorry. Also it's highly unlikely the next chapter will show up this quickly in the future. Real life sucks hard core sometimes. Also again, I know nothing about football so if that is abundantly clear I apologize.**


	3. Chapter 2

Yoichi, of course, realizes that to fulfill his end of the bargain with the fucking manager he is going to have to have another talk with Sena, but he's a very busy person. He wouldn't say he's avoiding the conversation precisely, but yeah, that's pretty much exactly what he's doing. He upgrades the security cameras, which he has been meaning to do for a while now, though he was just going to blackmail someone else into doing it, he gathers more blackmail, and generally keeps too busy to even think about why he had allowed Mamori's flattery to get him into this situation. Because, knowing the shrimp, forcing a conversation about how people actually in a relationship behave is going to involve feelings, stuttering, and take about three times as long as Yoichi can stand.

Not to mention Yoichi doesn't really care to be in the same space with only one person for extended periods of times. He blames his mom for that one, really. Her gift for his sixth birthday was a lesson in blackmailing the everyday person, and it's something he grabbed onto fiercely and never forgot. The more time you spend with any one person, the more likely they are to have some kind of blackmail on you, even if they don't completely realize it.

Similarly, his seventh birthday she gave him some trashy dime store novel romance that he read all the way through. Yoichi's just sort of, never stopped reading romance novels, and deep down, when he's all by himself and in a very, very good mood, he'll admit they've made him a hopeless romantic. And while he was, and is, smart enough to realize life is not a book and people are complex and sometimes act in ways it isn't possible to calculate, he still has the occasional ridiculous thought straight out of the early dime store trash he holds stupidly near to his heart. Of course, if anyone else found out about his little obsession though, he would laugh at them until their self esteem was so shattered it would require years of therapy to fix.

Regardless though, whatever romantic paranoia his childhood upbringing has engendered in him, Yoichi needs to have this conversation before the manager has it for him. Yoichi knows there is only one way that Mamori telling the damn shrimp to call him Yoichi will end, and it's in tears and probably fleeing the country. Which might be fine in any other circumstance, but Yoichi still needs a running back and Sena is hands down the very best there is. Or, he will be, by the time Yoichi finishes with him.

So finally, Yoichi sends a note to Sena's fourth hour teacher, two lines, ten words, and exactly thirteen minutes later Sena arrives at the American Football club house, a bag which clearly starting hanging over one shoulder now hanging strangely around his neck, eyes wide and panting slightly, like he'd run the whole way here as fast as he could. Which he hadn't, or he would've been here significantly sooner, Yoichi thinks uncharitably. Yoichi pops a stick of gum in his mouth, chewes twice and blows a bubble. He is not going to start this conversation, as juvenile as that may be, but if Yoichi has to offer platitudes for upwards of fifteen minutes, the least the fucking shrimp can do is say something first.

"Um…" And so it begins. Yoichi feels the beginnings of a stress migraine building. Sena fidgets with his bag, before finally deciding to set in down near the door. "My… My teacher said you wanted to see me Hiruma-san?" Sena offers softly, and it's not really the started Yoichi was hoping for, but he'll take it.

"Shrimp. We need to talk." Yoichi says, blowing another bubble. It's very therapeutic. Sena's eyes widen.

"You can't break up with me, I haven't decided yet." He blurts out, and then the shrimp's eyes manage to get even wider and he goes completely red. "I mean-" Yoichi can't help but snort. Sena does not seem to be able to lift his eyes off the floor as he winces.

"No, fucking shrimp. That's not the talk we need to have, though we'd better be having it very soon." Yoichi says, glaring at Sena, though not as harshly as he normally might, and Sena, sadly, does not seem affected, and in fact, relaxes. What Sena does not do, Yoichi notices, is agree to this statement. Yoichi breathes very slowly, and pops two bubbles in quick succession to force his thoughts back in the proper direction. "We need to talk about how people in an actual relationship behave." Yoichi says very slowly, like he's talking to an idiot, which is not too far off from reality, he thinks.

"What?" Sena manages, and Yoichi almost feels hopeful, this is already going better than expected. "We're not in a relationship why would you say that?" Sena chokes on his words and starts coughing, cheeks so in flame Yoichi is slightly worried that he is going to permanently damage his blood flow and Yoichi will be left to explain to the fucking manager why he let his running back lose all feeling anywhere below his face. All previous hope dissipates with an almost audible sound, not unlike a balloon blown up and then let loose to sputter uselessly all over the room.

"We're not." Yoichi agrees, pounding Sena's back to expedite the end of the frankly disgusting hacking noises. "But the idea is that everyone else will think we are shrimp." Yoichi says, and since there is no look in the world that can convey how very, very tired he is of this conversation, he settles for a blank stare.

"I guess so…" Sena says reluctantly, he's back to refusing to look Yoichi in the eyes, instead staring at the floor awkwardly. Yoichi is noticing a trend in their conversations and he'd very much like it not to continue. It's extraordinarily awkward trying to speak to someone who is, in turn, muttering to the floor.

"Ya-ha." Yoichi says back, and he's pleasantly surprised to find out that it can be said sarcastically. Talking to the damn shrimp is good for something other than brain aneurisms and migraines after all. Who knew? Yoichi figures now is as good a point as any to stop the small talk and get to the reason he actually called the shrimp down here. "You can't call me Hiruma anymore." He says, and then braces himself.

"Hiruma…-sama?" Sena ventures after a few uncomfortably silent moments. He glances up, unsurely. Yoichi pulls out a gun from locations undisclosed and fires off a couple shots at the shrimp's feet. Sena jumps around and puts up his hands like he can fend off the bullets from pure fear. Luckily for him, Yoichi never misses, even when his target is running around like a moron.

"I said 'like a relationship' not 'convince everyone we have a really kinky sex life and I'm abusing you.'" Yoichi says with extraordinary patience and grace. He politely, or at least as politely as he is capable of, waits for Sena to get over his mini-fit of coughing and blushing like he's going to run out of blood if he doesn't use it all as soon as possible. "So, the question is, do you want to be swarmed by idiots with crushes or not?" He asks, and the fucking shrimp wavers on the line between his ingrained response to bow apologetically to everything or his natural tendency to cower from anything that even seems like a threat. Yoichi waits again for him to decide which action to take and mentally notes that he really needs to start bringing something to do during these conversations, because cleaning his guns will bring on another three hours of squeaking and cowering and while it may be funny for the first couple minutes, it's going to get old really fast.

"Of course I don't." Sena says indignantly, after finally, finally settling on semi-apologetic, mostly cowering bows. "But, what am I supposed to call you then H-" Sena trails off, looking everywhere but at Yoichi. Yoichi blows another couple of bubbles, quirks an eyebrow and prepares for the highlight of his day.

"Call me Yoichi, fucking shrimp." He says, and finally he knows why he agreed to participate in this idiot idea. Sena looses all his composure, not that he had that much to begin this conversation with but still, and becomes as red as a stoplight, flailing his hands at random and failing to produce actual words. Yoichi can't help himself; he laughs manically and snaps a couple of pictures. He may actually never have a bad day ever again with these pictures on hand. He also takes a couple seconds to mourn the fact that Sena is going to turn him bi-polar if this relationship continues on for much longer.

"Hiruma-san, I can't possibly do that!" Sena shrieks, his voice going up about two octaves. Yoichi is impressed, Sena managed words a full three seconds before he expected him to.

"That's the point shrimp." Yoichi points out, reasonably. "You won't call anyone their first name without explicit permission and a whole lot of cajoling, which I'm not doing. Therefore, when all your little lover boys hear you calling me by my first name…" Yoichi waves a hand vaguely, and figures the shrimp can reason it out from there. Sena looks very serious and concentrates for a couple of seconds before his face smoothes out again and he nods slowly. He's not a moron, Yoichi reminds himself, it's just very few people are as devious and good at planning as Yoichi is.

"Okay… I think I can do it." Sena says, and he gets that look on his face, the look that means the Deimon Devil Bats are about to score an impossible touchdown so Yoichi smirks and kicks him gently in the stomach. Okay, it wasn't that gently, but Sena seems to get the gist as he lies on the floor and smiles hesitantly up. "If that's all H-Y… Yoi-" Sena winces, shuts both his eyes and peeps one eye barely open up at Yoichi, who tries to look, if not reassuring, than at least not angry. "Yoichi," Sena whispers, and closes his eye again. When nothing happens, he relaxes slightly and continues, "I really need to get back to math." Sena stands up, clasping both hands together, obviously waiting to have a hand waved distractedly at him and for Yoichi to return to whatever he assumes Yoichi does while not going to class.

Yoichi is honestly surprised. He had been in Sena's fourth hour class last year for about three days before he had insisted on being transferred. The teacher should not be teaching at all, the lessons were boring, not at all informative, and repeated information like all the students had suddenly contracted amnesia in the last thirty seconds. Yoichi thought Sena would've taken any way out of that class possible. "The last thirty minutes are all review." Yoichi points out, popping a bubble. Sena frowns.

"Y… um… Yoichi," another minute wince, though less noticeable than the last one, "maybe you didn't need the review, but I have to be in that class the entire time or I don't know what's going on." Sena says, and he looks almost like he's daring Yoichi to say something negative about it, to try and blackmail Sena about his stupidity. But that's one of the very few things Yoichi doesn't touch, except maybe for trash-talking before a football game, and even then afterwards it's clear he meant almost nothing of what he said. People's opinions about themselves are too easily changeable for it to be decent blackmail material, besides preying on something like a person believing they will never be pretty or smart or whatever has always felt worse than anything else Yoichi might use to blackmail a person.

"Isn't the fucking manager tutoring you?" He asks instead of mentioning any of his or Sena's thoughts. Sena droops a little, drops the stare and scratches at the back of his neck.

"She used to, but I told her she didn't have to worry about me, because she mostly spent her time here or at my house and her mom was kind of worried." Sena admits, and then starts, like he's not quite sure why he just admitted any of that to Yoichi, who makes a living off of blackmail. Yoichi isn't sure why Sena actually told him the truth either, but hey, he figures, whatever works.

"Give me your notes, shrimp." Yoichi demands, and holds out his hand expectantly. Sena frowns a little, but apparently has used up all his resistance for the day and goes over to the door, grabs his bag and roots around for a little while before locating his fourth hour notes and hesitantly handing them over. Yoichi flips through the notes quickly, frowning. Good to know his initial assessment of the teacher wasn't wrong. The notes are confusing and skip around before repeating random sections of previously learned problems. "Fucking shrimp." Yoichi says seriously, and Sena fidgets guiltily. "Your teacher cannot teach. Read the textbook and come see me if you have any problems." Sena cocks his head to the side and hesitantly takes his notes back.

"Why do you care?" Sena asks, searching Yoichi's face.

"Kekeke." Yoichi cackles. "If you fail because of some low-grade, hired-to-fill-space teacher, who's going to be the fucking running back?" Yoichi asks, and Sena lets out a huff of air.

"Alright, alright." He sighs, but he's smiling a little now. Yoichi does not feel accomplished and will blackmail the life out of anyone who suggests otherwise. "Um… thank you, Yoichi." Sena says, before he turns to exit the club room. Before he does though, he pauses, and turns back around. "You know…" He says, and a tiny devious smile is starting to inch its way over Sena's face. Yoichi blinks. "If I'm supposed to call you your first name, you should probably call me mine, too." He grins, grabs his bag off the floor, and darts off back to math class, shoving the notes back into his bag carelessly on his way.

"Kekeke." Yoichi laughs under his breath. This was starting to become almost interesting. The shrimp- Sena- could grow a backbone after all. Well, Yoichi thought as he picked up his laptop from where he stowed it and loaded up their current opponent's previous games, you learn something new everyday.

**Guess who finally got off her lazy butt and wrote a thing? It's me. Happy birthday to anyone whose birthday might be near, bless you to anyone who sneezed while reading this or I guess read this at all? Anyway, I figured that since this is from Yoichi Hiruma's point of view, and he's a pretty secretive guy, we don't know that much about him, I might as well stick something interesting about him in there. And while I was running at the ARC I thought what if he's into bad romance novels, like a lot? And then I laughed so hard I had to sit down for a while. So that's a thing that happened. And I'm not going to flush this out enough to actually use in a story, so have a little omake from when Yoichi was a baby.**

Yoichi did not tell people about his romance novel addiction. It was embarrassing and stupid and he would deny it existed to the grave. But… he had friends now, not minions, not people trying to steal their blackmail back from him, but actual friends, and Christmas was coming up pretty soon. So, he bought two books, took a deep breath, and let down his walls for two seconds.

"Here, fucking friends." He muttered on the accursed day, shoving two similarly wrapped packages at the fatty and the old man. Both blinked and opened them slowly, like they were afraid he had gotten them bombs which had only happened once, it was a mix up and he was not sorry, okay? (He was very sorry. He bought Kurita and Gen each like $300 worth of sweets and books respectively to make up for it.) Kurita smiled when he saw the book inside and hugged Yoichi with the force of a small wrecking ball bent on destroying a very large apartment complex.

"Geroff." Yoichi insisted banging on Kurita's back. Gen smirked at him, but opened the book and started reading, so Yoichi figured it was probably okay. (To this day, both Kurita and Musashi still read romance novels. Kurita tends more towards the fluffy ones that all have the same happily ever after plot and Gen only reads the weirdest ones he can find, with dragons and Godzillas galore. Yoichi is not touched and doesn't appreciate that they've never mocked his obsession. Not even a little, okay? (He appreciates it so much he can't talk sometimes. Not that anyone will ever find out.))


	4. Chapter 3

The next morning progressed much as yesterday had, with Sena knocking softly on the doorframe to announce his presence before gently sliding the door shut behind him. Yoichi glanced up from where he was seated in the built in window seat and thought if he ever wanted to dispel the rumors that he actually lived in the American Football Club (he didn't), he was really going to have to stop getting here so obnoxiously early. Sena didn't seem surprised though, but he did look a little nervous, which, Yoichi knew, could only mean terrible, terrible events were about to happen. Yoichi returned his gaze to the laptop and prayed that today, at least, he would be able to get some work done. He was not expecting anything to come out of the prayers.

"Yo…Yoichi, uh…" Sena started, still not able to say Yoichi's name without wincing. It amused Yoichi more than it probably should have, and, for now at least, outweighed the annoyance of having his name stuttered through several times a day. Yoichi could see out of the corner of his eye that Sena's eyes were starting to go wide and he was crouching in on himself, so with an almost silent sigh, Yoichi snapped the laptop shut and focused his attention on Sena, who straightened almost immediately.

"Yes?" Yoichi finally pressed when Sena did not continue. Sena flailed his arms, went through an extremely amusing range of facial contortions, and then ran over to stand directly in front of Yoichi, with maybe four feet of space between them.

"My mom heard that I was dating someone and now she wants to meet you, I'm so sorry." Sena blurted out, before bowing deeply so he did not have to look Yoichi in the eyes. Yoichi raised an eyebrow. He was not a moron by any stretch; he'd seen this coming from the moment Mamori had asked him to start dating Sena. Yoichi was actually more surprised that Sena was apologizing to him, and not to Sena's mom. He hadn't winced at all while asking Yoichi to go to his house either, which was probably the stupidest thing the fucking shrimp had ever done, and Yoichi had been watching the entire Musashi fiasco. Anyone else would die before allowing Yoichi within twenty yards of their house, not that Yoichi had ever allowed that to stop him before. It was kind of nice, in a completely idiotic, this boy is going to get himself murdered one day, way.

Yoichi was just about to torment Sena about his stupidity and also ask whether it was genetic, because there were very few people in this city who did not run screaming upon hearing the surname Hiruma, when the door slammed open and the second annoyance of his day came rolling in. "Sena!" Suzuna trilled as she skated over to where Sena was still bowed over. She blinked twice at the sight, looked between Yoichi and Sena and grinned like a maniac. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She asked, managing to make the question laced with innuendo so there was no way to answer it without sounding guilty. Yoichi was so very proud. Sena was flailing again, spluttering nonsense words and blushing to the roots of his hair.

"We'll talk later." Yoichi said firmly, before mentally thanking every deity and picking up his laptop again. Suzuna took that as the dismissal it was and focused her attention back on Sena, though she did raise an eyebrow and very obviously only managed to stop herself from asking by a small margin.

"I heard about your dilemma." She said, instead, and Yoichi could hear the eyebrow wriggle in her voice. Sena did not respond; still too busy choking on his words. "So I made a list!" Suzuna exclaimed, and indeed there was the sound of crinkling paper as she pulled something out of one of her pockets. How did she even get here? Yoichi wondered belatedly, one would think whatever school she was going to would recognize her absence as she was always here. Then again, Yoichi couldn't find any records of her at any school, so maybe she didn't go to school at all, because there was very little he was not capable of finding when he put his mind to it.

"Suzuna, what is this?" Sena finally managed, though his voice was several octaves higher than it normally was. Yoichi cursed his incessant need to know everything about anything and glanced up from his laptop. He had been so close to actual work too. Sena was flailing again, piece of paper gripped loosely, and Suzuna hadn't moved the conversation away from the window Yoichi was sitting in, so he reached over and plucked the paper out of Sena's hands. Then he blinked.

The list was arranged in two columns: names and Suzuna's opinion of the person. The list included Gaou, Agon, Suzuna, and Yoichi himself, along with countless other names; it went on for what looked like three taped together pages in cramped writing. The opinions of the four names that really drew Yoichi's attention were, in order, 'He's big, like really big, imagine him in bed. Actually, don't, do you mind if I field this one', '? He has nice hair, I guess, I'm not really sure what I was thinking, I wrote this list at 2 am, he might actually kill you. Don't talk to him', 'This is the pity option, like I said before, I'm already fielding all your rejects so keep it up', and 'You're already dating him plus he can blackmail literally everyone. Best date ever.' Yoichi was trying to decide whether he was proud or angry at his self-proclaimed student's actions when Sena snatched the paper back.

"Do any of these people even like me?" He demanded, brandishing the paper in Suzuna's face. Yoichi went back to his laptop; he actually was done paying attention to either of them this time. Maybe if he said it enough it would become true. Suzuna cocked her head to the side and considered this.

"Maybe?" She hedged. "Like I said, it was like two am when I wrote this. I still think it's a good reference point though." Then Yoichi could hear her smacking a fist against her palm and exclaiming as she remembered something and Sena made noises not unlike a kicked puppy. "I forgot. This is Mamori's list. It's for You-nii." And another piece of paper, entirely too long and folded several times, was slid in front of his laptop's screen. Yoichi looked up and glared at Suzuna, who was, sadly, unaffected and kept staring at him. So Yoichi sighed and took the paper. This list, too, was organized into name and comment columns.

"Hey, if that's about me, shouldn't I read it?" Sena asked grouchily. Yoichi turned to him with a pleasant smile and a raised eyebrow. Sena put up his hands and backed down and Yoichi allowed himself a moment of vindictive pleasure. He hadn't lost his terrifying mojo after all, though it was amusing to see Sena attempting to stand up to Yoichi, as pathetic and short-lived as the attempt was. Yoichi looked at the list, ignoring Sena grouching and Suzuna patting his shoulder comfortingly.

The list seemed to be ranked from greatest to least threat levels as judged by Mamori. Agon, unsurprisingly, was at the very top, though she had commented it shouldn't be a problem as he was a well known womanizer, no what was surprising was the Yoichi found his name, almost at the very bottom of the paper. 'If' the fucking manager had written 'he chooses you and you agree, and you hurt him, I know that you know I will destroy you.' Yoichi was not threatened by that, he did the threatening, thank you very much.

"So can I see the list or not?" Sena restated his earlier question as Yoichi looked away from the paper. Yoichi bared his teeth and stuck the paper in his laptop bag to look at closer when Sena was elsewhere.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for morning practice?" He asked instead of answering Sena. Sena twisted his mouth into an unhappy line but he went into the changing rooms anyway. Yoichi went back to his laptop, this time, this time he would get work done. The repetition was beginning to lose effectiveness.

"So… You-nii and Sena huh?" Suzuna asked, grinning in a manner that Yoichi immediately recognized as his own grin. She was leaning on his shoulder, completely unafraid of retribution. He felt a moment of absurd pride before he shoved it down to focus back on the cheerleader who was attempting to use his own lessons against him.

"So, middle school sleepovers, hmm?" He returned, without looking at her, and Suzuna clicked her tongue before straightening and raising her hands.

"Alright, alright. Sorry I brought it up, it's just a favor to Mamori-neechan, I get it." Suzuna relented, though her tone suggested that this was not the end of this conversation. Yoichi really hated that tone, but either way Suzuna left to arrange the cheerleader's meeting and Yoichi was finally, blessedly, alone. For fifteen minutes until he had to start practice. Yoichi sighed in acceptance.

Practice proceeded much as it did every day, with the obvious exception that Juumonji had almost reverted back to last year's belligerence. It was slightly amusing watching the shrimp tiptoe around the team's hurt feelings and Yoichi was not ashamed to admit he acted out the part of Sena's boyfriend a little more than was strictly necessary. Or, a lot more, maybe. He ruffled Sena's hair every time he passed and squeezed his should twice. Sena smiled hesitantly at the actions and Juumonji scowled harder each time.

It was hilarious, and Yoichi was once again glad he had agreed to this. He could put up with Sena's stuttering, inability to deal with any kind of romantic overtures, whether they were meant to come off that way or not, and slowly disappearing fear of Yoichi, which would mean seriously problems if Yoichi ever had to blackmail him in the future, just to see the look on people's faces. It was priceless, Kurita kept sneaking him these dopey happy looks, like one of his romance novels was coming true right before his eyes, most of the rest of the team just looked lost, and Juumonji was probably going to die from rage before the week was over. Beautiful.

But practice ended all too soon and Sena's face had set in a manner that could only mean trouble for Yoichi. After the team had changed and most had trickled out, only Sena, Yoichi, Juumonji, and Kurita, hovering nervously, remained, Sena planted himself directly in front of Yoichi. He was shaking, just a little, but his head was up and Yoichi blinked at him.

"Please come to my house after school today." He said, and Yoichi was full of pride or possibly annoyance towards his running back, in two days he'd gone from mildly to all encompassing fear of Yoichi to barely having a tremor in his voice as he requested something Yoichi was sure Sena thought was brazen. On one hand, Yoichi was hoping Sena had forgotten about their earlier conversation because if Yoichi met Sena's parents Yoichi's mom was going to pitch a fit until he brought Sena home, but on the other…

Yoichi nodded, pushing Sena gently to the side as he passed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sena shrink in relief and Juumonji light up in apocalyptic rage. It was a thing of beauty. Juumonji's face contorted in many ugly formations as he clenched his fists to keep silent and not terrify Sena. Yoichi grinned sharply at him as he exited the club, Kurita trailing behind, pressing his pointer fingers together.

Yoichi turned on Kurita as they entered their first hour class, raising an eyebrow. The class was, as always, full of very annoying, yet exploitable, and very loud eighteen year olds who only cared about gossip or schoolwork, depending on their personality. Kurita started and smiled guiltily. "I just wanted to say congratulations on your new relationship." Kurita said, and then he swept Yoichi up and spun him around twice, which is all he managed before Yoichi shot his gun off to signify that Kurita had better put him down two minutes ago. The class had gone completely silent.

"What." One idiot finally managed and Yoichi grinned like the demon everyone thought he was. What better way to get out to all of Sena's suitors that didn't go to Deimon that they had better act fast than to announce it to a bunch of idiots that babbled on to anyone who would sit still for more than three seconds about literally everything.

"Don't you know?" Yoichi asked, leaning into the idiot's face. The child had gone as pale as a ghost and appeared to be struggling to breath. Yoichi loved his reputation, he really did. "Kobayakawa Sena is fucking mine." And then he smiled, a polite, normal smile, which caused literally half the class to faint. Yoichi really, really loved being him. "Spread the news, because I'm not leaving." He cackled, and relishing in the feeling of a job well done, brought out his laptop, already writing off this class as a waste of his time.

**Alright so I'm sorry about the time it took to get this up, thanks to everyone who is reading I've gotten like 30 e-mails about people favoriting or reviewing or setting alerts for this story which was sweet of all of you. Anyway, at this rate I think this might end of having 3 more chapters, though that's not a sure fire number, and next chapter should hopefully have more characters that everyone knows and loves/hates/doesn't actually have an opinion about. **


	5. Chapter 4

Yoichi was unsurprised to exit his last class and find Sena standing uncertainly on the opposite wall, but obviously he hadn't trained his classmates as well as he should have, because his ears twitched and he could distinctly hear murmurs from several people guessing at Sena's goal. Yoichi despairs for the future of the human race, if any of these fucking idiots could remember what he told them not forty minutes ago maybe he wouldn't have to blackmail so many of them. In any case, Sena was standing there and Yoichi had made a promise so he raised an eyebrow and started walking, snickering a little on the inside as Sena's eyes widened and he started tripping after Yoichi.

"Um… Where are we going?" Sena asks as he catches up, Yoichi turns his head toward Sena without breaking pace. It's always amused him how fast the boy is capable of being when he tries, when he pays attention, he could outpace Yoichi any day but here they are, with Sena barely keeping up.

"Kekeke, where do you think?" Yoichi replies, and Sena frowns, forehead crinkling. Yoichi resists the urge to either yell it was a rhetorical question or give Sena a straight answer and ruin his reputation. Three days with the damn shrimp and already he was having existential crisis. The most horrifying part of this experience was that he almost didn't care anymore. He was, dare he say, enjoying spending time with the running back. Sena didn't seem scared of him at all anymore, but he still made the most ridiculous faces in response to anything Yoichi said. It was fascinating.

"Are we… We're going to my house?" Sena asks, interrupting Yoichi's thoughts. Yoichi tsks, the shrimp was so close to making a statement for once, but then what would he use his mutant ability to make anything into a question for? In any case, Yoichi just glances at Sena out of the corner of his eye and speeds up toward the American Football club, where he keeps everything he could possibly need in any given situation. Sena's face scrunches up unhappily, but he doesn't demand an answer, still running after Yoichi.

In the relative ensuing silence Yoichi manages to reach the club room and shove approximately twelve guns into his bag before Sena also enters the room, slightly out of breath. Yoichi straightens up and smiles brightly at Sena, who glances around like he thinks he's done something terribly wrong. Yoichi's smile widens at the edges, less of his polite schoolboy look and more his everyday smile, which for some reason causes the shrimp to relax.

Yoichi does not think he will ever understand Sena, but he's starting to accept this fact. Also he was in no way avoiding thinking about the upcoming meeting of Sena's parents. It was a feeling Yoichi was becoming comfortable with, denial. He'd never really experienced it before entering his rapidly less fake relationship with Sena. But nevertheless, Yoichi reminded himself, the relationship was not an actual relationship with feelings and gushiness, and meeting Sena's parents thus meant nothing. Yoichi realty, really hated having feelings, he was going to look into having them surgically removed shortly after he succeeded in becoming dictator of the world.

Sena in the meantime has broken into a wide smile, obviously making the leap between Yoichi's awkward grip on his bag and their earlier conversation. It took him long enough, Yoichi thinks, uncharitably. He feels uncomfortable, which is another feeling he's becoming, ironically enough, comfortable with. Yoichi takes a moment to praise the gods that he was blessed with the inability to feel shame, and thus to be blackmailed, before he blinks and Sena grabs hold of his wrist.

"Thank you so much Yoichi." Sena says, in a voice that contains much more gratitude than Yoichi really deserves. "My mom's going to be thrilled." He continues, as he drags Yoichi toward the school gates and people start to stare. Sena seems to be completely ignorant of this fact, which doesn't surprise Yoichi, while not in a game it takes a lot for Sena to notice anything he doesn't take for granted. Yoichi takes a moment to bare his teeth at the idiots though, more out of habit than actual irritation. This alone should be enough to get the rumor wheel turning fast enough to reach Ojo, Shiryuji, really all of the schools. And that, Yoichi tells himself firmly, stupidly, is a good thing.

"She nagged at me all yesterday and all this morning, and I was really scared you were going to say no and she was going to yell at me some more." Sena babbles on, not giving Yoichi a chance to interrupt, even if he wanted to. Sena's strategy seems to be if he talks fast enough and often enough it will somehow stop Yoichi from running as fast and far away from this situation as he can. But no, that would be Yoichi's pride and his mother's lessons in always keeping his explicitly given word and how he should never explicitly promise anything. Yoichi realizes, in retrospect, he should really listen to his mother more often.

Sena continues speaking in a slightly hysterical voice as they leave the school and walk in the general direction of Sena's house. He does not let go of Yoichi's wrist, which amuses Yoichi for some reason he is not going to examine too closely. Yoichi feels strongly that Sena would've kept talking until they reached the Kobayakawa household and possibly even after, but before his hypothesis can be proven true, Sena literally runs into Shin Seijuro. Yoichi curses in surprise, having managed to wrench his arm back just fast enough to stop himself from following suite and running into the enemy linebacker.

"Eyeshield 21." Shin says blankly, looking down at Sena, who is rubbing his forehead in confusion. Sena's head snaps up and he starts babbling out apologies, to Shin, to Yoichi, and, Yoichi is sure, to the ground on which he landed. Shin cocks his head slightly to one side as he catches sight of Yoichi. Yoichi bares his teeth in a feral smile in response. "… Quarterback Hiruma." Shin greets, interrupting Sena's tirade. Yoichi does not miss the slight narrowing of Shin's eyes. He grins wider, and moves to help Sena up.

"I'm so sorry Shin-san." Sena says one last time. Shin nods at him in acknowledgement and Sena smiles hesitantly. "What are you doing out here at this time?" Sena asks curiously, having accepted Yoichi's hand up and forgotten to let it go.

"This is part of my training. I run here everyday." Shin replies calmly, his eyes locked onto Sena's grasp on Yoichi's hand. Yoichi is torn between pleasure, because this was the plan and Shin had to be the sanest person on Suzuna and Mamori's lists, and he was including both himself and Suzuna, and vicious irritation because who was Shin to look with such displeasure at Sena? Yoichi mentally moved the removal of feelings up on his to do list; now after he took over Japan but before he became dictator of the world.

"Wow… Shin-san sure is dedicated." Sena breathes out, and Yoichi crushes the jealousy that rises up in his chest ruthlessly. "Ah!" Sena exclaims before Shin can say anything in reply, having finally noticed that he is still holding Yoichi's hand. Instead of letting go though, because why would Sena ever do what Yoichi expected, he turned Yoichi's hand over so the watch on his wrist was facing Sena. "I'm sorry Shin-san, we have to go. My mom will start to get irritated if we take any longer." Sena explains, before smiling again. "It was nice running into you!"

Then Sena is dragging Yoichi again, and as he's facing away from Shin he misses both the slight hand wave and mildly irritated look Shin gives. The latter, Yoichi knows, is from the grin that hasn't managed to remove itself from his face. Yoichi waves back childishly before turning to face the same direction and avoid tripping over his feet or something equally embarrassing.

Sena is quiet for most of the rest of the trip to his house, only pointing out little landmarks, his favorite tree, the house of the nice old lady who sometimes would watch him when his parents were busy, or a little bird's nest built on someone's roof. All without the rightful fear of admitting information to Yoichi, no one gave Yoichi information voluntarily anymore, no matter how harmless it might be. Sena was an idiot, but oddly enough Yoichi didn't hate it.

Finally, finally, they reach Sena's house and stop, both staring at the seemingly normal house. Sena gulps and takes his hand away from Yoichi to knit his fingers together. Sena lets out a little self-deprecating laugh, but Yoichi understands more than he'd like to. For whatever reason, stepping foot into this house scares him more than facing the Americans did, more than facing Agon. He has no plans and regardless of what Sena may think, to Yoichi this feels real. He suddenly, desperately wants to impress Sena's parents, and not just because he's a terrible, non-repentant, blackmailing demon. Yoichi does not think he is going to come out of this dinner in one piece.

"This is my house. Er- but you probably knew that already." Sena says, but Yoichi gets the feeling it's more for the sake of having something to say than it is for an actual purpose, so he doesn't respond. Sena blows out a breath and shakes his hands. "This is stupid. I live here." Sena mumbles, more to himself than to Yoichi, but he still doesn't move. Yoichi takes this to mean he is free to proceed, swallows his trepidation and stupid feelings and walks up to the door, which seems to loom dangerously over him, so Yoichi scowls at it, then schools his face and swings it open.

"Welcome to our humble home! I'm Kobayakawa Mihae and this is Shiyuma, my husband. You can call me Mihae-san or Mom! Thank you so much for coming here it's such a pleasure to meet you." The woman finishes with a textbook bow and a huge smile. Yoichi blinks and bows back without hesitation, his dealing with potential business ally smile firmly in place. He betrays no hint of how shocked he is to be accosted by a random woman seconds after opening a door that was not his, or the discomfort her familiarity causes him. Sena gawks at him, before his gaze turns calculating and in turn he giggles. Yoichi has no idea what Sena thinks he has figured out and it makes him very nervous, though he still is playing every part the perfect business man.

"Mom you can't be so familiar with someone you just met." Sena says, and Mihae frowns severely.

"Sena if you are going to get married to Yoichi-kun he has to get used to the in-laws. Right Shiyuma?" Mihae calls over her shoulder. A man reading the newspaper offers a severe up and down of Yoichi, who can't even pretend to be nervous now that everything has gone so incredibly crazy, before grunting an affirmative and returning to the paper. Sena chokes on his words as he processes his mother's statement. Yoichi internally cackles and revises his opinion of this woman; she is a beautiful human being and is probably friends with his mother.

"Mom!" Sena finally manages to exclaim, and Mihae clucks at him, rubbing imaginary dirt off the side of his cheek. Yoichi relaxes out of business mode and into his normal self, which Sena seems to sense and grins, long-suffering, at Yoichi.

"Yoichi-kun please go sit down at the table, we're having an early dinner, it's almost done." Mihae says cheerfully, batting down a squalling Sena's arms. Yoichi cackles softly to himself, but does as directed.

The house is much as his 'research' suggested it would be: an average interior, subtle and understated. The dining room has exactly four chairs and from one side of the table Shiyuma eyes him slightly suspiciously. Yoichi raises an eyebrow at him, and quirks the side of his mouth, Shiyuma snorts and returns to his paper for the second time since Yoichi has been here. Yoichi does not take it personally, he's pretty sure it's a compliment and it doesn't make him feel good thank you very much. He loves denial.

Eventually Mihae finishes fussing over Sena, sends him to the table as well, and disappears into the kitchen. A slightly awkward silence ticks past, as Sena fidgets, Shiyuma reads, and Yoichi revises his mental notes on Sena's family. Obviously his slaves were in need of a revising class on how to gather proper information.

"Sorry about…" Sena whispers, flicking his eyes around in a way that implies he means his entire house. "And thanks. Again." Sena says, more to his feet than to Yoichi, but Yoichi just huffs out an amused breath, and Sena shoots his head up, cocked in interest.

"Shr-Sena." Yoichi corrects himself. Sena smiles wider than his name really warrants before ducking his head back down. "It's only been five minutes and I can honestly say I have never had as good a time as I am having right now." Yoichi grins widely, and Sena's eyes narrow skeptically, but eventually he tentatively smiles back. At this, Shiyuma snaps his paper so it folds neatly in half and lays it down on the table. From Sena's widened eyes Yoichi gathers this is not a normal occurrence. There is another slightly awkward silence as Shiyuma seems to gather the energy to speak and Yoichi raises his eyebrow, curious to hear what he will say, and slightly nervous, though he refuses to admit it again, even to himself.

"Yoichi-san, was it?" Shiyuma asks finally. Yoichi inclines his head and Sena squeaks, snapping his head between his father and Yoichi, though neither has, in fact, done anything warranting this response. "What do you plan to with your life after graduation?" Shiyuma asks, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I plan to take over the world." Yoichi returns, completely serious. He figures the truth can't hurt, and it's a goal he is very serious about. Yoichi has a five-year plan and everything. He knows it's only a matter of time before he can't play football anymore, even if, by some miracle, he gets into a professional league, and it never hurts to have plan in action. Sena squeaks again, though Yoichi thinks he should really be beyond shock at this point. Shiyuma nods, contemplatively, and Yoichi supposes he approves and is done with the conversation, as he returns once more to the newspaper. Sena, Yoichi thinks, knows something Yoichi does not, because he puts his head on the table and groans, loud and long and very tired.

With impeccable timing Mihae sweeps back into the room, bearing platters of rice, strips of chicken, and numerous vegetables. After that the dinner passes pretty normally, judging from Sena's reactions, except for the fact that Yoichi is present. Yoichi is a little surprised, but not over much, to discover he enjoys himself and at the end of the night he is a little sad to leave. Mihae hugs him goodbye and Sena waves him off and Yoichi quirks a little smile, sincere and not terrifying, just to himself. He heads to his apartment ready to sleep when his main cell phone rings. He answers it and just stops himself from cursing out loud.

"Yoi-kun." A very familiar voice says blandly. "I hear you have a boyfriend and didn't tell your own mother. I understand of course. Boys grow up; they don't appreciate all the sacrifices made for them anymore. They don't bring their boyfriends to meet their poor long-suffering mothers." Yoichi's mom sniffs delicately and Yoichi grimaces. This is going to be a very long conversation.

**Hey, so sorry about that. Life happens, I was in a musical and visiting a relative and I guess I kind of forgot this existed for a bit. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but I'm starting school soon and there will be more musicals and AP classes so it might. I'll try hard not to let 3 weeks pass before updating again though. I hope this makes up for it. If anybody notices spelling errors, feel free to point them out. Or tell me your favorite part. I'm personally really looking forward to Yoichi's mom's enterance into this story. So it'll be an adventure to the next update.**


	6. Chapter 5

The problem with Yoichi's mother is that she is a very good manipulator, and only slightly less skilled at being a mother. So despite having only moved out of her house a short while ago, and being used to her manipulations, Yoichi still finds himself agreeing to bring Sena over for dinner. Like most conversations he has with his mother, he ends the discourse confused and slightly angry. Then he groans because his mother is going to never let Sena leave and his 5-year plan does not involve a significant other that can possibly be used against him. Yoichi decides the best plan, for him, not necessarily Sena, is to simply not mention anything to Sena until he drags him to his mother's house. While he has moved on from his frankly bipolar attitude to his arrangement with Mamori, Yoichi feels justified in taking a moment to hate his life, before starting the less legal, less self-indulgently emotional, aspects of his night life.

In the morning, Yoichi makes it to the club room in record time, and, in combination with his favorite feeling, tries to convince himself he isn't nervous for the second time in as many days. Yoichi is supposed to be a hard-core demon blackmailer, and as such he considers moving up his removal of emotions to slightly before he takes over the world. He thinks he was much more successful at pretending to not have emotions only a little while ago, and does not particularly enjoy this change.

He'd known, even through the agonizing hatred of every one of the shrimp's actions, that Sena was different when he'd first dragged him to the American Football Team. Now though, Yoichi regrets that he'd never considered just how different, just how much Sena could change everyone he met. Yoichi knows himself well enough that he wouldn't say he'd gone soft, not for everyone at least, but Sena… Yoichi, suffice to say, might have a soft spot, which was unfortunate, because soft spots meant people with fewer morals than himself might attempt to exploit him. Might jab at those soft spots, and Yoichi thinks that- he thinks his disposable GPS should not be beeping like that at approximately 6 in the morning.

Yoichi snatches up the cell phone connected to the GPS he has attached to Sena and examines the data it just sent. He has a GPS attached to nearly every person in the city, and every single person on both Mamori and Suzuna's lists. He only has cell phones relaying him data for the people on his team and the most important members of his blackmail crew though. The phones inform him, by beeping at varying levels of obnoxiousness, when the person attached to the GPS is located for more than 5 minutes close to anyone he has deemed dangerous to that person. In Sena's case, this includes all his suitors who are ranked on a beeping scale of 'likely to end in blushing and Yoichi incredibly angry for reasons he is still shoving down' to 'likely to end in a dead body and Sena crying for years'. The GPS is currently beeping at the highest, loudest decibel level available, which means he is conversing, or worse, with Gaou, Agon, or Clifford.

Yoichi snatches up his bag full of mostly illegal firearms and sets off for the location displayed on the cell phone. It is incredibly close to Shiryuji, which, to Yoichi, seems both incredibly unnecessary and asking for trouble. Then again, logical thinking has never been Sena's strong suit, judging from all his school and hospital records, so Yoichi should've been expecting this. In fact, he's surprised he hasn't been forced to have this confrontation earlier, now that he actually thinks about it. Or doesn't think about it, because Agon is both incredibly dangerous and prone to flights of violence, maybe he'll have a girl with him, Yoichi hopes. That generally stops the most harmful actions Agon takes.

When Yoichi finally gets to the location, a forest a mile or two from Shiryuji which is very concerning, or more precisely, a couple yards away from the location, just out of Agon's point of view so he can assess the situation, he's more than a little surprised. Agon is not in the presence of a girl, and he's not looming threateningly while Sena lies on the ground. Sena is seated on Agon's school jacket, and Agon is sitting beside him, angled so Yoichi can only see half his face and slightly too close to be natural. He actually has his head cocked toward Sena and what looks like the smallest of smiles on his face, while Sena talks with his hands, expressively. In fact, if Yoichi didn't know better, he'd say Agon was using his patented flirting technique on Sena. No, actually, as Yoichi watched closer, and Agon leaned in, he was pretty sure that Agon was flirting, which was a little concerning.

Sena doesn't seem to have noticed yet, as he laughs, and his eyes crinkle up in happiness. Yoichi isn't sure what it means that he's noticing these little habits of Sena, but he's still not quite ready to face these feelings. He turns to go, not far, just far enough that he can climb a tree, get some work done, and still be there if, when, Sena notices and starts freaking out. But with Yoichi's luck trending the way it is, Sena notices him, instead of the situation.

"Yoichi!" He calls cheerfully as he stands and waves a hand above his head, and Agon jumps up while whipping his head around with murder in his eyes. So Yoichi grins and waves back, more restrained, and yes, with carefully calculated mocking of Agon thrown in. "What are you doing here?" Sena asks curiously, cocking his head to the side. He doesn't sound angry or helpless, and Yoichi feels his earlier conclusion cement. There is absolutely no way Sena realized the situation he was in.

"Yeah Yo-ich-i, why are you here?" Agon, on the other hand, sounds like he did all those years ago when Yoichi would bring him bad news when he was walking with a girl. Not because Yoichi was afraid of Agon, but because watching him attempt to constrain his explosive rage was like watching the light dawn in the eyes of someone Yoichi was blackmailing: hilarious. Agon's teeth were gritted and his usual face, the one Yoichi likes to call 'I just killed a man and I'm about to kill a second' had replaced his flirting face. Yoichi cackled.

"Well, I was on my way to break into Shiryuji to get the updated stat sheets, but as long as I'm here." Yoichi grinned and bypassed Agon to prop one arm up on Sena's head and look down at him. Sena smiled back up, slightly confused but no less pleased for it. Agon looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel, but as Sena returned his gaze to Agon, he made a very quick return to avidly interested, and really Yoichi never needed to watch a soap opera again, with the life he was living. "You don't mind if I stick around, right Sena?" Yoichi asks, and Sena looks more confused, but he shakes his head.

"Actually, I need to get back to my training anyway." Sena hesitates, looking between Yoichi and Agon for a moment, and Yoichi is again struck by how much Sena sees sometimes. He may not be the brightest light bulb out there, but like the fucking manager said, he's perceptive, most of the time, when it comes to people.

"How admirable Sena. I need to talk to Yoichi anyway, so I'll see you later?" Agon asks, smiling sweetly. Sena hesitates a little longer, his eyes lingering on Yoichi. Yoichi rolls his eyes and makes a shooing motion.

"Okay. See you at practice Yoichi." Sena says, eyes flickering to Agon. Yoichi laughs out loud as Sena leaves. He's smart, the shrimp is. He just informed Agon that he expected to see Yoichi later, and that he needed to be in one piece without saying any of that. Agon, of course, generally stuck with one person until he got laid or bored, so he would, begrudgingly, not harm Yoichi anymore than could be hidden. Yoichi had just been handed a license to do as he pleased. Sena shot him a confused look, but took off running anyway, not quite 4.1, but fairly close. Good, he still needed to work on his stamina.

"What are you really doing here?" Agon snarls, as soon as Sena is out of sight. Yoichi cocks his head to the side and raises his eyebrows.

"Are you doubting me?" Yoichi asks in a mock-hurt tone. Agon steps closer, fists balled, but he hasn't punched yet, so Yoichi really doubts that he will. Sena, Agon is smart enough to infer, will be highly disappointed if Yoichi has his lights punched out by Agon. Enough so that he will likely never sleep with him, which is always the end game for Agon. "I thought we were friends, how sad that I was wrong." Yoichi sniffles a little, and Agon growls low in his chest. Yoichi cackles once again, he really loves Sena's perceptiveness when it isn't being directed at him. He doubts Agon could seriously hurt him anyway, but Yoichi isn't stupid enough to think several punches wouldn't land if they got in a serious fight before he could slip away.

"Trash, don't lie to me." Agon manages to grit out, and Yoichi clicks his tongue. Agon has always been easy to infuriate, to manipulate, but this seems different somehow. Personal, maybe, like Agon- and then it clicks, more than it did than when he was messing with Agon earlier, Agon feels threatened. That's a new one, Yoichi thinks, and he turns this thought over in his head, examining it. Then he grins, slow and wide.

"Fucking dreads, are you jealous?" He asks, drawing each word out, tasting them all in his mouth and feeling his grin widen. Agon's eyes widen, only slightly, but Yoichi sees it and laughs. He had honestly never thought this day would come. Yoichi has something Agon wants; Agon can't get in another way. They'd worked together, sure, but it had been out of convenience, not because either of them particularly needed the other.

"Who's jealous trash?" Agon snarls out, and Yoichi doesn't flinch as he lashes out, denting the trunk of the tree next to Yoichi's head. Yoichi just shakes his head and cackles the harder. Agon is furious by this point, almost more angry than Yoichi has ever seen him, and it's hilarious. No one had seriously considered Agon, the womanizer, would fall for Sena, who, say what you would, was irrefutably male. It was irony in its purest form, and Sena had no idea, or at least he wasn't acknowledging it if he did know. In the end, Yoichi is still not quite ready to examine his feelings, but he'll accept he feels something for Sena. So he settles on his words and steels himself.

"You should be jealous. Too little, too late, dreads." Yoichi says seriously, and then he sets off, as fast as he can. Agon could, of course, catch him if he wanted to; he has God-like instincts in everything, not just football. But Yoichi has floored him, and not until Yoichi has had several minutes head start does he hear a faintly screamed "Trash!" coming from what seems like a very long way away.

Yoichi leads practice much as usual, and if he works everyone just that little bit harder to avoid thinking too much, well nobody knows but him. And maybe the shrimp, judging from the look he gets thrown as Sena enters the club house, it's not judgmental, simply thoughtful, and that worries Yoichi. Yet, he refuses to think about it at this point, Yoichi has a plan for everything, and that includes when he will think harder on his presumed feelings. The plan may fall through, but who's to know until he tries.

In any case, Yoichi doesn't see Sena again until the end of the day, half through design, and half through coincidence. When he does see him, he grabs his arm and looks Sena seriously in the eyes. Sena, obligingly, looks like he's swallowed a bug and is regretting his life. Or maybe that's just Yoichi projecting and Sena is just very confused, that is also very possible.

"Sena, call your mother, my mother wants to meet you." Yoichi, he wouldn't say commands exactly, but he strongly encourages Sena. Sena, in return, cocks his head to the side, opens his mouth, narrows his eyes, and then closes his mouth and does as bid. Another feeling Yoichi supposes he has to get used to, the feeling of frustration that comes from Sena always being one step ahead of him. Yoichi waits, semi-impatiently, but mostly just terrified as Sena talks to his mother, informing her of the change of plans in his afternoon.

He looks around to distract himself and finds the entire school, once again, is staring, completely silent, at Yoichi and, by association, Sena. Yoichi raises an eyebrow and snarls, and miraculously everything erupts back into the general ruckus of a school environment, with no one meeting his eye. As it should be. At least something is a universal constant in Yoichi's week. Sena taps Yoichi's arm and smiles when Yoichi glances down, feigning calmness.

"My mom said it's fine. I think she was a little more excited than she really needed to be." Sena laughs and Yoichi smirks a little in response. Sena's laughter dies off and he changes to observing Yoichi seriously, and Yoichi feels yet again like he did when Mamori looked at him, some days he almost doesn't believe that the two aren't related. Still, Yoichi stands obligingly still and doesn't look away, though he does feel his eyes narrow. Eventually, Sena smiles a little. "So I get to see where Yoichi lives, huh? Everybody thinks you just live in the club room."

Yoichi does bark a laugh at this, he doesn't mind that rumor, but it just goes to show the stupidity of Deimon's student body. He may be rumored to be an actual demon, but where do they think he sleeps? Or do they just assume he subsists off the tears of those he blackmails? Actually, that would explain a lot about the increase in crying when he blackmails people. He brushes that thought aside and starts steering Sena out the door and down the sidewalk, if he's lucky, he might even get a few blocks from the school before his mother intervenes.

"I don't actually live there anymore." Yoichi corrects, though he's not sure why. Never give free information, that was one of the rules his mother had given him, and he could've sworn he had come to the resolution to follow his mother's advice more often. But Sena's face lights up in the second he realizes he's been trusted with any information, no matter how miniscule. Then it dims, though, and Sena frowns.

"That must be lonely. I don't think I could imagine living without my parents in high school." Sena says, and Yoichi laughs. It's been a while since anyone has offered that point of view to him, probably since Kurita found out he moved out of his mother's house.

"No, any longer and she would've kicked me out anyway. Too much temptation to try to blackmail each other." Yoichi grins wildly, and Sena shakes his head in resignation.

"I don't think I'll ever understand you Yoichi." Sena offers and a smile tugs up one side of his mouth. Yoichi tsks and rolls his eyes, but he doesn't mind. Yoichi thinks having someone he can talk to like this is nice, though the word makes him shudder. Even with the fatty or the old man, he's always felt like he's pushing too hard, or holding back too much. Maybe because he didn't care what Sena thought when they first met, but he's not as anxious he's going to say something and chase Sena away as he is with Kurita or Musashi. Yoichi was going to respond, but instead he blanched, great, his mother's transportation had shown up sooner than expected.

"Sena, don't panic." Yoichi says, and Sena only has time to widen his eyes before the stretch limo twice as large as a normal stretch limo pulls up to the curb and the window rolls down.

"Please get in the car Hiruma-san." The driver says politely, pulling her sun glasses down to gaze seriously at Yoichi. Yoichi sighs heavily, and opens the door; he had argued with and blackmailed several different people, including his mother to get that right. His mother may like attempting to embarrass him through her blackmail methods, but he wasn't about to take it lying down. Sena was still gaping at the limo, and he looked in over his head, so Yoichi shoved him in the limo first.

"My mother." Yoichi starts, and his face twists like a sour lemon. Sena's eyes lock on him like Yoichi is his only chance of salvation, and Sena manages to right himself from where Yoichi has thrown him haphazardly on the seat. "My mother has certain connections. And she likes to use them, don't worry." Yoichi finally settles on, and Sena hesitantly nods, before starting to look around.

Yoichi, besides the cursory glance that tells him where the escapes are and if there is anything he can use as a weapon or blackmail material, refuses to look around on principle. Sena, however, seems entranced by everything, gasping and laughing whenever he finds something new that fascinates him. After about five minutes of this, Yoichi is forced to manhandle him into his seatbelt, Yoichi knows this driver, and she is not particularly safe taking turns or stoplights. It is, in fact, what allowed his mother to blackmail her in the first place. They manage to make it to Yoichi's old house in one piece, however, and Yoichi steps out and drags Sena out after him.

His mother's house is the same as when he left two years ago, three stories high, in complete black, with a backyard the same size. She blackmailed a lot of people to get this house, and was not afraid to let anyone know it. Speak of the devil, Yoichi thought uncharitably. His mother appears on the front porch smiling gently. Yoichi had been told he was the spitting image of his mother when he was young, and it was true, to a point. She was tall, lanky, and had teeth like a shark, but her nose was turned softer, her eyes were sharper, and her hair was still black and long. Sena bows anxiously when he caught sight of her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Sena stutters out, and his mother's smile sharpens. Yoichi glares at her, but as always it only proves to amuse her. "My name is-"

"Kobayakawa Sena, you're the running back for my son's American football club, is that right?" She asks, and Sena laughs, nodding. The idiot looks calmed by her knowledge of him, and Yoichi is a little afraid he's completely screwed Sena up. "My name is Hiruma Aiko. I'm honored to meet you." Aiko says, and Yoichi fights the urge to laugh as he does every time his mother says her name. 'Pure child', his grandparents could only wish. "Please come inside. Welcome back Ichi-chan." His mother says, and Sena laughs again, Yoichi can only tsk as he follows his mother and Sena inside.

"You can show Sena where the dining room is, right Ichi-chan?" Aiko asks, and Yoichi sighs as he nods. His mother is exhausting enough when she isn't actively trying to ruin his night. He can only hope to escape the night with some dignity left. As his mother leaves, Sena turns to smile at him.

"I like your mom. She's nice." Sena offers and Yoichi barks out a laugh. His mother and nice are not generally concepts that are associated with each other, but she does seem to like Sena, oddly enough. Or not so oddly, Sena has a magnetic personality, Yoichi thinks, which is unfortunate.

"It's this way." Yoichi says, in lieu of an answer. Sena seems to accept this and follows him to the dining room. In contrast to Sena's house the table seats twenty and there are several tables in the room. Aiko loves dinner parties because the free-flowing wine provides more blackmail than she could ever dream up. But it makes small family dinners awkward.

"Wow." Sena gasps quietly, and he looks like he's drowning again. This is why Yoichi never brought Musashi or Kurita over. He doesn't quite know how to explain his mother is a blackmailing queen, so instead he pushes Sena over to a chair and sits him down. He seems to be doing most of his communicating this afternoon through pushing Sena into things, and he refuses to see any subtext in that.

"Shrimp." He says instead, and Sena's gaze snaps to Yoichi as he frowns at the name. "Tell me what a reverse is." Yoichi demands, and Sena's gaze softens in thanks. Yoichi quizzes Sena, and Sena answers, for the next twenty minutes, until Aiko sweeps back in dragging a cart laden with all types of food. She tosses the dishes onto the table with a flourish and smiles directly at Sena whose eyes have widened to the size of tennis balls.

"Tell me about yourself." She says encouragingly, and pushes a couple dishes closer to Sena. Sena does so, slowly at first, but soon enough he's explaining the disaster of a chemistry class he had, complete with hand gestures and a smile that threatens to break his face. Yoichi feels a smile tug itself onto his face to match, not his normal smile, the threatening one, but a sincere smile, like he hasn't felt since he was much younger. He likes watching Sena express himself with such cheer, and Yoichi feels something else tugging at his chest. Fuck. It may be time to reexamine those feelings.

**Wow guess who's back and also garbage? Yeah, it's me, sorry. I could offer excuses, but I won't. Anyway, this was a little rushed in grammar and such, so if anybody sees anything, shoot me a message, yeah?**


End file.
